Henderson
FieldThe runway was lengthened towards the Ilu River
end in 1978, so some of the original field area that bordered on the Lunga
River is now overgrown. There are some overgrown roads and buildings
along the road to the Edsons Ridge battlefield . We found a US 90mm AA gun shell case in 1996.

Henderson Field, in 1999

Of
course every house or hut in the vicinity had fencing made out
of matting from the airfield. Overlooking the bridge across the Lunga River is a field gun described
to us as American, but upon examination was in fact a Japanese
75mm gun. I am told that this gun was once mounted on the bow
of the Japanese transport Kyusyu Maru.

2nd Marine
Memorial

Domestic Terminal
of Henderson

Inside the terminal building various American
memorial plaques adorn the walls. In front of the terminal are other plaques to
the 1st and 2nd Marine Divisions , Marine Raiders , the Coastwatchers and
Solomon Islanders.

Red Beach after the Marine invasion

Facing the road is a good condition Japanese type 95 75mm AA
gun - in fact the best we saw out of four such guns . This one at the airfield
was originally sited in the palm grove across the road. The main road in front of the terminal was once
the taxiway and the wartime control tower still stands as a good reference
point.

1943 Control Tower

This is not the original wooden
1942 tower , but one built later in the war .At the foot of the
tower is a concrete air raid shelter. This area was excavated
in 1992 and a monument to the battle of Edson's
Ridge errected.

The view from the control tower is very good
and you can certainly get oriented looking towards Bloody Ridge, Fighter strip
# 1, Pagoda Hill and the aircraft dispersal areas.

The old Jap hangars south of the field are long
gone, but the concrete foundation stones remain .

Pagoda Hill(click for more WWII images)

Henderson - South towards Pagoda Hill

In
1995 they were selling wartime dated Coca-Cola bottles at the Airport shop
and said , pointing across the road to that area �there are thousands of
them in thebushes!�.

They
do not sell them at the Airport now, but there are still plenty for sale at
the Honiara Market.

Across the road from the tower are the �Pagoda
Hill�� and plane revetment areas , how heavily overgrown with trees , bushes
, and tall grass . Concrete foundation slabs of long gone huts can be seen.

The white object in view is the Navy Seebees
Memorial.

Concrete air raid shelter at the foot of the control
tower.

Navy Seebees Memorial

Across the road from the tower are the �Pagoda
Hill�� and plane revetment areas , how heavily overgrown with trees , bushes
, and tall grass . Concrete foundation slabs of long gone huts can be seen.

The �Pagoda� flight operations hut was bulldozed
in November 1942 , but� the Communications centre tunnels and rooms dug
into the hills are still intact and dry, although with entrances overgrown
and now populated by bats.